Gamera by Toho

[briizilla]

As a result of an excruciatingly slow day at my store today I found myself watching the MST versions of Gamera and vs Gaos today on Netflix. As I watched them it occurred to me that unlike the later movies in the series these movies had the feel of the 60s movies from Toho. Then I got to thinking how would they have improved if the screenplays had been filmed by Toho in its heyday. Would Honda or Fukuda have diminished the children's roles? How much better would the sfx be if done by Tsuburaya and company? I feel like those are the biggest flaws of the first 3 Gamera films. How much better would Gaos have been if he was operated by Tohos wire works crew? Or if Gamera was a straight monster movie without Kenny?

Thoughts?

[mbozzo]

I have no idea on how Toho would handle the monster turtle. Of course, if Gamera was done by Toho, you might get a Godzilla Versus Gamera movie.

[Dai]

Interesting premise. Looking at Gamera vs Gyaos, for example, I could see the kid being excised completely, perhaps replaced by a plucky reporter or photographer, as in MvG or GTTHM. The only time we saw a child protagonist in the showa Godzilla series was All Monsters Attack (I wouldn't call the kid in Megalon the protagonist), which felt like Toho's response to Gamera, so I don't think Team Honda would have kickstarted the Kenny trend if they had control of the Gamera series' initial direction.

The artificial blood fountain would definitely be out, perhaps replaced with a similar idea implemented in a more military fashion. I could see hardware similar to the wasp venom sprayers from Dogora, or maybe some kind of magnetic or sonic device used to disorient Gyaos.

The violence would be toned down too; Toho kaiju traditionally don't eat people, after all. That's an aspect I've always found jarring in the Gamera movies.